Electrical connectors having a lever which is rotated to bring the plug assembly into position within a header find broad use in connector technology, particularly in automotive technology. The levers have gear teeth which mesh with complementary teeth on the header, in a rack and pinion fashion, to draw the plug assembly into electrical connection with the header.
One such plug assembly is shown in US Patent Publication Number 2009/0246992. The plug assembly includes a plug housing and a lever, where the lever includes gear teeth which cooperate with a tooth on a header in a rack and pinion fashion. The lever is locked to the plug housing when the lever is poised for the plug housing to be inserted into the header. A release member on the header releases the lever from the locked position allowing the lever to be rotated to the position where the lever gear teeth mesh with the header tooth, to draw the plug assembly into the header.
Typically, the levers and the housing are molded separately in two molds and assembled together in post molding operations. As each of the components is molded separately, the lever and the housing must be handled separately and assembled together. This introduces handling costs and also increase material costs as waste is produced in both of the molding operations. It would, therefore, be beneficial to provide a header assembly in which the housing and the lever are molded in the same mold and are assembled shortly after extraction from the mold cavity.